Small Moments
by kalirush
Summary: Eternity is a long time. You start to lose things, after a while.


Jack runs into the Doctor on Sabelus, under the sweeping trees and raining petals of the Spring Festival. He's in a new body again, but Jack somehow _knows_. Not from behind. Not from a distance. But the Doctor turns around, and it's all there in his eyes.

This time, the Doctor is happy to see him. "Jack!" he says, grinning. "It's been... well, you know how time is."

"She's a fickle mistress," Jack agrees. But she brings them together, now and again. As much as they both get around, it'd almost be surprising if they _didn't_ run into each other every few centuries. If you didn't consider the vastness of the universe, at least.

The Doctor buys _koroches_, and they eat them together under the trees, powdered sugar spraying over the Doctor's front and crisp, fried dough melting in Jack's mouth. "You always did have a sweet tooth," Jack says, smiling.

"Not always," the Doctor tells him, shrugging. "It's old age setting in, I expect."

"You?" Jack says, and laughs. "You're a young thing, yet."

"I guess I am," the Doctor says, and it's just a little sad.

"Are you traveling with anyone?" Jack asks.

"Are you offering?" the Doctor shoots back.

"Just wondering," Jack says, and puts the last bit of the _koroch_ in his mouth, brushing the sugar from his fingertips.

"Her name is Lora," he says.

"Good," Jack says.

"Jack Harkness, are you checking up on me?" the Doctor asks.

Jack smiles, but he feels a stab of fear. _Harkness? Did that used to be my name?_

* * *

Jack's guards catch the Doctor breaking into the treasure vault. Jack laughs when they drag the Time Lord into the throne room. "Let him go," he says. "And leave us." Jack can see what his captain, Markus, thinks of that idea. But it's not as though Jack can be killed, so he does as he's told.

The Doctor rubs his wrists, looking wary. "Jack," he says, by way of greeting.

"Doctor," Jack says, and gets off his throne to lift the Doctor in a bone-crushing hug. The Time Lord mostly looks awkward and uncomfortable, which is half the reason Jack does it. He grins. "You know, you didn't have to steal from me. I'd give you anything if you asked."

"I didn't know it was you," the Doctor admits. "Didn't expect to see you in a throne room, Jack."

"With this face?" Jack quips. "It was just a matter of time before someone gave me a crown." The truth of how and why he took the throne is much more complicated, of course.

"I don't think royalty suits you," the Doctor says, disapproving.

Jack feels a jolt of anger- _won't I ever be good enough?_- and then a vague sense of unease. It feels like well-worn pain, like a question he's asked himself a million times. Strangely, though, when Jack thinks about it, he can't exactly remember _why_.

"I don't think that's your business," Jack snaps, irritated.

The Doctor looks surprised. "Maybe not," he says, and he seems a little sad.

Jack puts a smile on his face, and makes himself laugh. "Why don't we go down to the treasure room? And you can tell about how you're going to save the universe."

"For this week, at least," the Doctor says, dourly.

Jack laughs, for real this time.

* * *

Jack turns a corner, and he almost runs into the Doctor. The Time Lord is half-carrying a woman who looks pale and clammy and like she might pass out at any moment.

"They're behind us," the Doctor says, in lieu of _Hello Jack, it's been a few centuries, hasn't it?_ "Run!"

And Jack, laughing, runs after the Doctor as he always has. Later, when they're out of danger, Jack stands in the medbay and watches the stars. The Doctor nudges him from behind. "Cuppa?" he asks, offering tea in one of those timeless styrofoam cups that seem to exist in hospitals and police stations across centuries and lightyears. "The tea is terrible, of course. It's a rule in hospitals. Or anywhere there are doctors, really. Except me."

Jack takes the tea and sips it. It's as terrible as advertised. "You're chatty this time around," he says. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Meg?" the Doctor says. "Yes, on both counts. I was a bit curmudgeonly last time and I think I'm making up for it now."

"Do you lick things, like you did when we first met?" Jack smiles and sips his tea.

"That wasn't when we first met," the Doctor says, frowning. "Ears and jumpers, remember?"

Jack isn't sure how he could have forgotten that. Ears and jumpers and steel-blue eyes, and a kiss at the end of the world. How could he lose _that_?

"Anyway," the Doctor says, "I don't know why everyone focuses on the licking. I didn't lick _that _many things."

"_I_ know why everyone focuses on it," Jack says, lasciviously.

"Stop it," the Doctor says, as he always does.

* * *

Jack's dead, and then he's alive again, same as he always is. He gasps and scrabbles for purchase. The Doctor is there. His hair is snowy, but his grip is strong as he helps Jack to his feet.

"It _was_ you," Jack says. "I thought it was, but you don't usually live long enough to get old."

"Cheeky," the Doctor says, like he's pretending to disapprove. "People do actually respect me in this body, you know. It's got authority. And gravitas."

"Gravitas," Jack purrs.

"Stop it," the Doctor grumbles, and Jack laughs.

"Did they get away?" Jack asks.

"They did," the Doctor sniffs. "And how did you expect to make it out yourself, with no ship and the rest of the station infested by Maratha wraiths?"

Jack shrugs. "I'd've found a way eventually," he says. "Besides, someone had to stay behind and manually enter the launch sequence."

The Doctor sighs. "Well, since I'm here, you might as well come along. Though I warn you- the old girl's been a bit touchy lately. She might not take to being told where to go."

Jack reaches into the storage locker and pulls out his current coat- he's always loved grey wool. "Good enough for me," he says.

The Doctor sniffs again as he opens the door to the TARDIS. "This is a bit too much like old times, Captain," he says. "But I'm not much up for dancing at the moment."

Jack doesn't know what the Doctor's talking about, but he doesn't want to argue the point. He shrugs his coat on. In the distance of his awareness, he can hear the TARDIS singing.

"The universe is waiting," he says, and smiles.

He's not sure why he feels sad.


End file.
